But, there are days, my word, there are days when you look at MLS like the most annoying girlfriend/boyfriend you've ever had. Being a Canadian fan of MLS is like watching your partner flirt with everyone at the bar, but the second you say you’re done, that person’s back with a gift and a promise that really, this time, (s)he’ll change.

"The limitation on foreign players is a rule issued by U.S. Soccer, and one that we're subject to as a league. We view our new policy to consider Canadian players as domestic as a change that increases opportunities for all players."

Then, on Thursday came the announcement that, as part of its national English-language television deal with TSN, seven MLS games will be broadcast coast-to-coast on CTV. That’s a massive sign of BellMedia getting behind the MLS property, with the same kind of fervour we have seen dedicated to the Canadian Football League in the past. Of the seven national CTV games, five will feature match-ups between the Canadian sides.

Canadian Soccer Association president Victor Montagliani says he’s confident that we’ll see reforms made to roster rules in both MLS and NASL before the end of the year.

Damn straight that refs are calling the games more closely and more harshly than ever before. And guess what? It’s because fans and the league asked them to do it that way, that’s why.

A poor loonie was blamed for the departure of the NBA’s Vancouver Grizzlies to Memphis, Tennessee. The NHL’s Canucks have been hampered in the past by a poor dollar. But, in the case of the MLS Whitecaps, the league’s central control of contracts and revenue could help insulate them from the dollar’s demise

Nana Attakora and Drew Beckie prove a point: That if a Canadian player is able to count as a domestic player on the roster of an U.S.-based NASL team, he'll get a shot.

But, with the Flyover Cup — a supporter-driven initiative which sees the winner of the FCE/Loons season series get the award — it should be Minnesota who is our closest rival. But, in a weird way, the Loons are kind of like the Eddies’ best frenemy. We’re the cold-weather cities in a league filled with tropical teams; we’re united in our sense of isolation from the rest of the NASL.

Former CSA president Dominique Maestracci accuses MLS of breaking promises it had made to the association; and he says the relationship with the USSF was not a cooperative one...

“Until two to three years ago, the relationship was non-existent,” says Montagliani. “Basically, we were a foregone conclusion to our friends from the south. But we have strengthened our relationship, first with the USSF, and now we have better relationships at the MLS level, and the NASL level. Our relationships are improving but, remember, it’s been just two or three years.”